Engine shortage has been going on for some time, its not a new problem. I thought by now it would be better. Placing my stocking order for 2019 and big HP Yamaha's are still way out. According to my DMM, he said we might be able to get a couple of larger HP engines, but not much. I don't rely on those.....most large HP engines we do are planned out OR mid season failure and repowers(which is now hard to do).

Mercury had a price increase on models in the mid HP range that are made in China. $100-$365 per engine tariff surcharge. On a $6000 engine, thats 5%. The memo said 25% tariff, but the surcharges don't calculate to that.

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I was at a Mercury dealer Saturday, who had originally told me for an ordered boat, the soonest they could get the new Merc 300 V8 was October. That was 3 weeks ago, now they are saying March. This was for a decent sized boat builder who is almost exclusively Mercury. This has to be hurting even the bigger builders who have done their forecasts properly.

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Pretty much!
How many times have there been price increases based on cost of oil?
But when has there ever been a price decrease when oil has come down?

Fellow I know sells gun safes up in Tn. He got an e-mail a while back saying there was to be a price increase because of the tariff on steel. He called the company and ask, how come a price increase since we have always been told and used as a selling point that these safes were made from AMERICAN steel. Was told that was correct, but American companies was using the tariff to raise their prices also. SMH

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That kind of growth is only good if you already own property. My house appraises just over 4 time what I paid for it. Only good thing is that I bought it when I was a kid. The bad is that the towns tax you on what they say it’s worth.

I however would like to thank my newer neighbors for paying for my kids education.

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My hope is some of those trends change over the next 5 years, to increase my buying power for a retirement place. Since CO tops the short list, I hope legalizing of dope in an increasing number of states puts a huge reversal on the trend they saw recently.